Welcome to our weekly breakdown of the minutia of Kurt Sutter and Elgin James’ Sons of Anarchy spin-off, Mayans M.C.. While Kimberly Ricci provides her always excellent coverage of the series (here’s her write-up of the the latest episode), here we’re going to endeavor to look deeper into the episode and excavate some of the details viewers may have missed, callbacks to Sons of Anarchy, and posit questions explore theories about the direction the series.
1. The title of this week’s episode, “Camazotz,” refers to the bat god, which is associated with night, death, and sacrifice, which certainly makes sense in the context of this episode.
2. I love that the dude from the Stockton chapter said that the cops “run their fake Vic Mackey bullsh*t.” Vic Mackey was a dirty cop on an FX show called The Shield, which is where Kurt Sutter — the co-showrunner of Mayans M.C. — got his start. It was also the show that did for basic cable what The Sopranos did for premium cable.
3. I genuinely have no idea how Emily’s storyline — bidding on the Agri-park — plays into the rest of the season. Here, she basically bribes her friend Illana for information on the other bids. I suppose it’s designed to show us that Emily can get her hands dirty, too, although her criminal misdeeds are of the white collar variety. I guess she’s gotta start somewhere, but right now, the Agri-park seems divorced from the rest of the season. What does it have to do with the Mayans?
4. In Emily’s conversations with Illana, we do learn definitively that the fires in question were the Southern California fires and that the Galindo home was a casualty of them, presumably with Dita inside (which would explain the burns on her back). It doesn’t make a lot of sense that Emily won’t let Dita hold her baby, but I suppose they are concerned about Dita’s mental health following the fire. I don’t know why Emily has to be so mean about it, though.
5. The Medina/Hope/Dirty Cops storyline was pretty straightforward, too. A dirty cop shot Medina for no apparent reason, Bishop — who sponsored Medina — was really bummed out and got his revenge by using Hope (and her addiction) to lure the dirty cop out and kill him by hanging him upside down and filling him full of bullet holes. The only concern is whether killing a cop will blowback on the Mayans at some point.
6. Medina’s funeral features a representative from the Grim Bastards, who apparently did not disband after T.O. patched over to SAMCRO in the final season of Sons of Anarchy.
7. We finally got some clarity on Felipe’s relationship with Dita. They were apparently lovers, based on the old love letter from Dita that Felipe pulls out. Felipe feels guilty about it, but it looks like we’ll eventually learn that either Angel is Dita’s son, or that Miguel is Felipe’s son. Alvarez, meanwhile, is checking in on Felipe on Miguel’s behalf. It’s also worth noting here that Alvarez also has a relationship with Happy Lowman. Alvarez actually paid Happy to murder his own son back on Sons of Anarchy.
8. So, here’s the deal with Potter now. There’s a progressive politician named Polomo who is leading farmer uprisings, riots, and other strikes. Potter believes (correctly) that Adelita is behind Polomo’s growing popularity, so he has recruited Miguel to get Polomo’s hands dirty by tying her and her reputation to the Galindo cartel.
9. Finally, before EZ and Angel showed up at Happy’s home and put guns to the back of his head in the episode’s stellar cliffhanger, there were two very fun callbacks to Sons of Anarchy. First off, Happy called his dog “Ope,” meaning he is named after Opie Winston from Sons of Anarchy. Meanwhile, on the way to Happy’s house outside of Charming, Angel and EZ passed by the memorial to JT Teller, the father of Jax Teller from Sons of Anarchy.
